Posts Tagged ‘Numbers 21:4’

This week, Mark Call of Shabbat Shalom Mesa fellowship teaches parsha “Chukat,” (Numbers chapters 19 through 21) and THE element described as the very essence of what a “chuk” is — aka “statute”, but really, ‘just DO IT because your Creator said to.’ This one is particularly poignant, because not only are the lessons NOT “done away with”, or obsolete, but some understanding of death is central to loving life, and living it in spite of challenges and worse.

The Erev Shabbat overview begins with that most famous, and perplexing ‘chuk’ of the Red Heifer. But it turns out that the story is far more intricate, and interconnected, than we may have thought.

The Sabbath Day teaching this week comes with a warning up front, because not only is the primary subject of this parsha DEATH, but Mark more than suggests that “death” has become so ingrained in this culture and ‘the church’ that the warnings, the metaphor, the ‘picture’ that YHVH is painting here has not only been lost in twisting and idolatry, but turned on its head.